LINE messenger bumped to Windows Phone 8, adds lockscreen support

LINE messenger app for Windows Phone has been updated to take full advantage of Windows Phone 8 and new functionality. Popular in Asian markets, LINE is available in over 230 countries as a VOIP solution for those who don't wish to (or can't) utilise the likes of Skype, Kik, WhatsApp etc. So what's new in the latest version?

Support for lockscreen is presently available with icons for the lower section of the display. As well as notifications, detailed information can also be published to view without unlocking the Windows Phone. We last looked at LINE back in 2012 when the app was released. It's a good solution for those who wish to contact friends, but it hasn't quite taken off in western markets.

You can download LINE from the Windows Phone Store. It's also available for iOS, Android, PC and Mac.

First of all, as WP8 user, I can't understand why software developers treat us like this. By "us" I mean WP8 users. Why can't we have VOIP? If you have done a decent development of the application it shouldn't be difficult to port it to any of the four main systems (WP, iOS, Android and BB).

Second point. I have a really weird behaviour of the messages after the update. They appear messed up. For example: I write three messeages and the one I have written in second place appears before the first, and so on. Completelly messed up. And it is difficult to follow a conversation with a bug like this. It is something similar to what happens with Skype on my iPod. Anyone else with the same problem?

Can somebody explain me why the autocorrect doesn't work? You have to type very slow for it to work. Just because of that, I need to revert to Whatsapp since I can't type quickly anymore! I can't reach NAVER for any support!

I never saw the need for this type of app, but recently I have been want a "Chat Room" for me and my friends. I have tried EVERY app I can find and this is my consensus.

Skype - Not good on WP7 and message are always out of order.

GroupMe - Really buggy, slow, messages are blank sometimes, and messages are out of order.

WhatsApp - Costs money on iOS (problem for friends)

Viber - SLOW.

Kik - AWESOME, it has speed and everything I need. Only problem is the notifications font work and even if you turn them off they keep coming. Causing my friends to uninstall. If they updated for WP8 and fixed all that I would LOVE it.

Line - So far seems pretty good. It has speed and notifications.

They main features I needed were working notifications, the ability to mute notifications, and cross platform.

For now I think Line will work the best, at least for the WP users, but I hope Kik gets updated because it is my favorite.

I also uses LINE and WECHAT. I love WeChat since it has better features (including VoiceIP Call), but in my experience LINE is noticeably faster. And of course, most of my friends are using Line instead of WeChat.
I hope WeChat improve their performance in the near future.

I seriously think all these messager apps are terrible. Non of my friends use them and the ones that they do are usually the more convient ones. Such as Facebook which is fully intergrated into WP, skype and groupme, these apps really fullfill everyday needs. Granted it's nice to have all the messagers apps available for the WP platform but if they're not on par with the mentioned apps, it's completely useless.

This is strange. I already installed it & it works. But it's still the older version. When i read this article, i rushed to market place and search for it (my market live tile never shows update notif *sigh) --- and it was not there. Even when i clicked the link in the article here, it's not available in my country, Indonesia. Really weird!

WP Store Indonesia is kinda strange. It never shows update notifcation! Well.. maybe there were in some occasions. Sometimes you have to go to the individual app in the store to notice the updates. I changed my WP Store to US Store yesterday and today I have 31 updates to install, including LINE!! Try to change the store to US Store and do antoher Soft-reset and see what happens. Hopefully the free apps (including LINE) will have update notification.

Yep.. That's one of the big problems for WP owners in Indonesia. Not only there're app gap between WP and IOS/Android. There are also app gap between WP Stores (eg. Indonesian vs US). Especially regarding best selling apps.
Kinda frustrating to be honest, since I couldn't buy apps like Gleek and Metrotube.
I tweeted about this prob to Microsoft Indonesia and they have no say regarding those un-available apps. It all depends on the Developers.

Ah, i thought it's microsoft who responsible for the gap, regarding they are the 'distributor' of the apps. Just like the official twitter app, it is unavailable in ID market at the time i bought my Lumia, but now it's available. Very weird.

Thank goodness i found this resourceful and informative forum and its app. Now i depend on its news regarding app updates.

for your information.. in region + language setting you can set
phone lanuage = indonesia
coun try/region = indonesia
region format = United States
that way you will get all updates n install apps and you will still be able to purchase apps in Indonesia currency.
thats how i do it with my L920

because Line loves Windows Phone so much, they decided to NOT include VOIP as part of the feature set. However VOIP is available on iOS and Android versions. Quite inexplicable to be honest; the app's marquee feature is the VOIP support and they somehow exclude it. Kind of reminds me of Viber.